Custom bushings

[asid61]

Originally Posted by Tyler2517

You could try using a set up like 1640 uses for their swerve drive. It can support huge amounts of weight and take a good hit. Its also pretty compact. Just mount it upside down? It uses a thrust bearing to handle the axial loads and a very large bearing to handle radial loads.

Sounds interesting. As I said though, because this is pretty low-budget (we have other stuff to work on too) I wanted to avoid ball bearings.

Slewing rings sounds interesting, but they are a little big.

[Gdeaver]

I've used 2 tapered roller bearing for turntables before. You could probably go down to 3/4" shaft size. Weight I assume is not an issue.

[David Guzman]

A great material for bushings is UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene).

We used this extensively, not only on the robot but at work for many bearing applications. It is very easy to machine, has a very low coefficient of friction and can withstand significant loads for a plastic.

You can get rods from McMaster fairly cheap.

[jman4747]

Originally Posted by David Guzman

A great material for bushings is UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene).

We used this extensively, not only on the robot but at work for many bearing applications. It is very easy to machine, has a very low coefficient of friction and can withstand significant loads for a plastic.

You can get rods from McMaster fairly cheap.

I would say +1 to UHMW, Delrin (Acetal Resin), or Nylon 6. All inexpensive all great bearing surfaces.

Another thing to consider if you can wait I would research different suppliers, Mc Master Carr is the fastest and arguably the best but not always the cheapest.

PS "All inexpensive" is a relative statement.

[asid61]

The thing is, the bushing looks pretty strange, and I can't really change the design at this stage (it follows an ultra-space-saving design that requires its weirdness). Basically I changed the design so it can use a smaller bearing, which is like 7/8" inner diameter and 1.125" outer diameter. However, it has a very large flange that's around 2" outer diameter. I'll look into using plastics for machining and cost without sacrificing strength. I've used UHMW in the past, but we tend to have a lot of acetal so I'll try that on aluminum too.

[highlander]

Originally Posted by asid61

The thing is, the bushing looks pretty strange, and I can't really change the design at this stage (it follows an ultra-space-saving design that requires its weirdness). Basically I changed the design so it can use a smaller bearing, which is like 7/8" inner diameter and 1.125" outer diameter. However, it has a very large flange that's around 2" outer diameter. I'll look into using plastics for machining and cost without sacrificing strength. I've used UHMW in the past, but we tend to have a lot of acetal so I'll try that on aluminum too.

In my experience Delrin machines really easily, while UHMW has a much lower coefficient of friction. However, UHMW is annoying to machine.

[Adrian Clark]

Originally Posted by asid61

Sounds interesting. As I said though, because this is pretty low-budget (we have other stuff to work on too) I wanted to avoid ball bearings.

Slewing rings sounds interesting, but they are a little big.

Using bearing for this application might be a little easier on your wallet than you think. 2'' ID thrust bearings are around $5, all you need is one on the top to handle the weight of the turret, one below to lock the whole thing together and some kind of bearing surface in between to handle radial loads. If you do this, since the top of the bushing is no longer a bearing surface you would only need for the inside of the bushing to be slick. This means that you could make a tube (aluminum, delrin, whatever strength is required for mounting) and put a sleeve bushing inside. A 2'' ID sleeve bushing can be bought from mcmaster for around $10. Or simply make the tube out of delrin and use that as your inner bearing surface.

This approach would change your design the least. Any timken or ball bearing for a shaft of that size would have a very large OD, and would require you to modify your design accordingly.

-Adrian